Recipe of the Week - Basic White Sauce

With a basic white sauce you can make macaroni and cheese, pasta alfredo, scalloped potatoes, anything that needs a nice creamy sauce.

White Sauce

2 T olive oil

1 T butter

1 small onion, diced

1/4 c all purpose flour

4 c milk [not non-fat]

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

Directions

Heat olive oil and butter in a heavy bottom large skillet. Add onion and saute until soft and opaque. Stir in flour until damp. Add a bit more olive oil if the flour doesn't all get damp. Slowly whisk in milk and season with salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens.

For mac and cheese, remove sauce from heat and add 2 cups of shredded cheese. Stir until cheese all melts. Pour over cooked elbow pasta. Or pour over steamed broccoli and cauliflower for a delicious side-dish.

Notes - You can use whole, 2% or 1% milk, but not skim/non-fat milk because the sauce needs fat to mix with the flour and thicken up. If you want extra creamy sauce, use 2 c milk and 1 c heavy cream.